Ubald’s Dream

Ubald’s Dream is a collaboration between composer Jan Foote and historian Holger Kaasik, inspired by the rhythms of medieval daily life, when time was marked by the sounding of bells rather than the tick of a clock.

The structure of the piece is drawn from a fourteenth-century calendar manuscript from the Italian town of Gubbio. Music from the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is reimagined for viola da gamba, cello and electric guitar, allowing fragments of the medieval repertoire to emerge within a contemporary musical language. An accompanying video retells medieval narratives through early twentieth-century stained glass, creating a dialogue between different ways of remembering and reinterpreting the past.